Sixteen-bean soup is a real pantry basic that advanced from American frugality and resourcefulness. By mixing a wide range of beans, reminiscent of kidney, navy, pinto, black beans, lentils, cut up peas, and extra, dwelling cooks can stretch a single pot right into a protein-rich, budget-friendly meal.
These mixed-bean blends turned particularly standard throughout the Twentieth century, when packaged soup and bean mixes appeared in grocery shops. With an extended simmer and easy seasonings, households may feed a crowd utilizing cheap components, making 16-bean soup a beloved staple in lots of properties.
It’s that point of yr to make the most effective sixteen-bean soup ever! It’s stuffed with scrumptious, wholesome beans, and you’ll add so many greens, and a few leftover ham for taste and much more protein.
I froze some leftover ham reduce into bite-sized items as a result of I knew I needed to make this soup. This recipe has been in my cookbook for years. Once I see the 16-bean soup combine on sale, I at all times purchase a couple of luggage. Please take into account that you should buy beans in bulk and make your individual dry bean soup combine.
If there was ever a time to know how one can make a superb bean soup, it’s now, my pals! Please be ready to feed your loved ones beans now, earlier than they must eat bean soup day by day. If you understand how to make bread or biscuits, that’s a bonus for a stomach filler. Selfmade Bread or Selfmade Biscuits
Soups of all types are used as a consolation meals when individuals get sick, significantly at the moment of yr. A lot of these soups have extra broth than this soup recipe, however you may take into account having it obtainable simply in case. I really like soups and make them any time a member of the family is “below the climate,” or to have a feel-good second on a very chilly day. Give it a attempt, they are going to love you much more in your type efforts!
The Historical past of Sixteen-Bean Soup
Sixteen-Bean Soup didn’t start as a single, conventional recipe however slightly as a intelligent answer to 2 timeless kitchen challenges: stretching components and lowering waste. For hundreds of years, cooks world wide have mixed varied beans and legumes into hearty stews as a result of beans have been cheap, filling, and saved nicely via winter. Mixing no matter beans have been readily available, kidney, navy, black beans, lentils, cut up peas—created a nourishing meal with out relying closely on meat.
In the USA, the concept of multi-bean blends gained reputation within the late 1800s and early 1900s as dried-bean availability expanded. Rural households usually saved jars full of leftover beans from totally different harvests, making “mixed-bean soup” a daily a part of homestead cooking. It wasn’t a couple of particular variety of beans—it was merely sensible, a comforting meals.
The trendy title “16-Bean Soup” emerged within the mid-Twentieth century when meals corporations started packaging pre-mixed bean assortments. These mixes supplied comfort and selection in a single bag, interesting particularly to dwelling cooks searching for inexpensive, high-protein meals throughout financial downturns. Manufacturers like Hurst’s and regional mill corporations made sixteen-bean and fifteen-bean blends broadly obtainable, and the soups turned a staple of frugal however flavorful cooking throughout the nation.
As sluggish cookers and strain cookers gained reputation within the Seventies via the Nineteen Nineties, multi-bean soup discovered new life as a simple, dump-and-simmer meal. Immediately, Sixteen-Bean Soup stays beloved for its rustic appeal, its dietary worth, and the comfortable custom of letting a pot of beans bubble on the range for hours—turning humble components into one thing scrumptious.
In case you missed this put up, Simple Turkey Pot Pie


Substances – Sixteen-Bean Soup
- 16 Bean Soup Bag: A scrumptious assortment of beans – sometimes incorporates: massive lima beans, pink kidney beans, small white beans, child lima beans, cranberry beans, pink beans, nice northern beans, pinto beans, lentils, complete inexperienced peas, inexperienced cut up peas, black-eyed peas, yellow cut up peas, small pink beans, speckled lima beans, and inexperienced child lima beans. It additionally incorporates a bag of seasonings so as to add to the soup as beneficial within the directions.
- Carrots: A root vegetable that’s sometimes orange in shade. It has a scrumptious crunch and is excessive in beta-carotene, a vitamin recognized for its function in eye well being.
- Celery Stalks: Refreshingly crisp, gentle, and scrumptious! Excessive in antioxidants, and the fiber contained inside is great for the digestive and cardiovascular methods.
- White or Yellow Onion: Each onions have a really distinct spicy taste that provides quite a bit to a savory soup, casserole, or different dish. White onions are usually a bit stronger and pungent in style than yellow onions.
- Garlic Cloves: Present scrumptious taste and may supply well being advantages attributable to their antiviral and antibacterial properties.
- Candy Dried Basil: Candy dried basil has a really distinct taste however is a milder herb than common dried basil. It has much less of a licorice taste.
- Dried Parsley: Parsley has a scrumptious, barely bitter style that contrasts properly with different flavors. Used to reinforce the totally different flavors of the soup.
- Salt and Pepper: In addition they assist to reinforce the flavors of the opposite components within the soup.
- Water: Used to rinse the beans earlier than cooking to clean away any rocks or particles; additionally used to prepare dinner the beans, greens, and seasonings.
- Ham: A sort of pork that’s roasted, pre-cured, or cooked in a wide range of methods. Provides the ultimate contact of scrumptious and savory taste to this soup!
Kitchen Objects You Could Want:
The Finest Sixteen-Bean Soup
Step One – Collect Substances – Examine Beans – Wash and Rinse – Cowl with Water in a Massive Pot
Collect all your components. Open the bag of 16-bean soup and search for small rocks or particles. Wash or rinse the dry beans.
Place the “washed” beans in a big pot and canopy them with chilly water. Allow them to soak in a single day.


Step Two – The Subsequent Day, Rinse the Beans and Drain
The following day, rinse the beans in a colander and drain.


Step Three – Place Soaked Beans in a Sluggish Cooker
Place the soaked beans in your sluggish cooker.


Step 4 – Chop Greens
Chop the greens of your selection.


Step 5 – Add Greens to the Sluggish Cooker
Add the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic to the sluggish cooker.


Step Six – Add Ham, Water, and Seasonings – Set Sluggish Cooker to Excessive for six Hours – Add Seasoning Packet
Add the ham items. Add 7-8 cups of water or sufficient water to cowl the beans. Sprinkle the seasonings over the water.
Set your sluggish cooker to six hours on HIGH. One hour earlier than serving, add the ham seasoning packet included with the 16-bean soup.


Completed Product
Do you’re keen on home made soup as a lot as I do? I want you may come over and have a bowl with me, I’d adore it!


Sixteen-Bean Soup Recipe


This sixteen-bean soup recipe is stuffed with beans, chopped greens, and a few bite-size items of ham. It is a great consolation meals!
Course:
Soup
Delicacies:
American
Servings: 10 individuals
:
-
20
ounces
16 bean soup bag (save the “ham seasoning” bag included) -
2
cups
chopped carrots -
2
cups
chopped celery -
1
onion, chopped -
2
cloves of garlic -
1
teaspoon
dried candy basil -
1
teaspoon
dried parsley - Salt and Pepper to style
-
7-8
cups
of water -
1-2
cups
recent thick items of ham (reduce into chunks)
-
Collect all your components. Open the bag of 16-bean soup and search for small rocks or particles. Rinse the beans in a colander and drain.
Place the “washed” beans in a soup pot and canopy them with chilly water. Allow them to soak in a single day.
-
The following morning rinse the beans in a colander and drain the water from the beans.
-
Place the soaked beans in your sluggish cooker.
-
Add the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic to the beans.
-
Add the ham items. Add 7-8 cups of water. Sprinkle the seasonings on high of the water. Set your sluggish cooker to six hours on HIGH. One hour earlier than serving add the ham seasoning bundle included within the 16-bean soup bundle.
What are the sixteen beans within the bag of soup?
It was enjoyable to place collectively the listing of bean varieties for this particular soup. There have been a couple of new names I wasn’t as aware of. As with most soups from the shelf, you’ll discover the outdated standby beans in most bean soups, reminiscent of lima, pinto, black, speckled, and so forth. All of us have a tendency to stay with these we all know our household will eat, and have the flavour we take pleasure in probably the most.
- Massive Lima beans: Often known as a butter bean. They’re bigger lima beans formed like a moon and are utilized in a wide range of dishes. Starchier than different white beans, which creates a texture that resembles a potato. They’ve a buttery taste and might turn into barely mushy when cooked.
- Small White beans: An ivory bean that could be very straightforward to arrange. They’ve a light taste, making them a flexible and customary bean utilized in many dishes.
- Purple Kidney beans: A really flavorful bean that’s pink in shade and within the form of a kidney. They’ve a nutty but gentle taste with a touch of sweetness.
- Child Lima beans: Smaller than navy beans, additionally a white bean. Often called butter beans as a result of as soon as cooked, they style buttery and creamy.
- Nice Northern beans: A medium-sized white bean with a light taste. A really versatile bean, it’s broadly used for its potential to soak up flavors and seasonings.
- Speckled Lima beans: Often known as speckled butter bean. They’ve a really creamy texture when cooked and are excessive in soluble fiber.
- Black beans: Very well-known in Latin American dishes. Very wealthy in protein, antioxidants, carbohydrates, and fiber.
- Inexperienced Child Lima beans: Very pale in shade and plump in measurement. They’re creamy and fairly tender beans.
- Pinto beans: Are small and flavorful beans. Identified for being made into refried beans. They’ve a really earthy taste with a creamy texture. They’ve a “painted” look.
- Cranberry beans: A medium to massive bean. They’re also referred to as Borlotti beans. Mild brown shade with a splash or streak of pink, black, magenta, or purplish pink spots. They’ve a barely nutty taste and are candy and creamy.
- Pink beans: are oval-shaped and small. They’re pale pinkish brown. Often known as a chili bean. They’re much like pinto beans however are smaller and rounder, with a deep, meaty taste.
- Small Purple beans: Often known as the adzuki bean. It has a powerful, nutty, and candy taste.
- Navy beans: A small white bean within the form of an oval. One of the crucial standard beans, it has a easy white floor and a really gentle taste. Often known as a Boston bean or pea bean.
- Lentils: An edible legume that’s naturally gluten-free. They vary in shade from yellow and pink to black, brown, and inexperienced. They have a tendency to have a little bit of an earthy, candy, or nutty taste and maintain their form nicely whereas cooking.
- Complete Inexperienced peas: A part of the legume household. They’re pale inexperienced and spherical. They’ve a candy taste and are nutritionally wealthy.
- Black-eye peas: A white bean with a small black eye. They’re small, a bit plump, and spherical.
One of many enjoyable issues I like about this soup is the number of colours. All of the bean varieties, together with some pea variations, make for a really colourful bowl of soup.
How do I retailer this sixteen-bean soup after cooking?
After cooking, I retailer the leftover soup in a Tupperware-type container. It ought to keep good for 3 – 4 days in your fridge.
Can I freeze this sixteen-bean soup after cooking?
Completely, place the soup in an hermetic container and retailer it in your freezer for 2-3 months.
Can I exploit canned beans which can be already cooked?
Sure, you’ll be able to skip the bean soaking and add 2-3 cans of your favourite canned beans.
Is sixteen-bean soup good for me?
Sure, it has lots of protein, fiber, and vitamins multi functional bowl!
My sixteen-bean soup is just too skinny. How can I thicken it?
Generally, we might add a bit an excessive amount of water, and we wish the soup to be thicker, I get it. To thicken your soup, use your ladle to take away three tablespoons of the broth and place it in a bowl.
Stir in 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch into the broth, and stir till easy. Add the combination again to the sluggish cooker. It can thicken because it cooks.
One other trick I realized from a reader is to make use of a bundle of instantaneous potatoes, add somewhat, and stir it within the soup till you discover the best consistency.
Can I make this sixteen-bean soup with out a ham bone?
Sure, you’ll be able to. Do I really like a ham bone? Oh, yeah! However generally I don’t have one, and this soup is ideal with out one.
Can I exploit a Ham Bone on this sixteen-bean soup?
I didn’t have one at the moment, however sure, you’ll be able to throw a ham bone in whenever you begin the sluggish cooker. After the soup finishes cooking, take away the ham bone, reduce off the remaining ham items, and return them to the soup.
Can I exploit LENTILS to thicken up this sixteen-bean soup?
A reader, Janet (thanks, my buddy), has taught me slowly how one can use lentils in so some ways. Add about 1 cup of lentils to this recipe, and it’ll thicken up very well.
Rinse the lentils as you probably did the beans, and add them to the sluggish cooker with the beans. The 16-bean soup combine has some lentils, however this might be a further cup of lentils.
Can I exploit one other meat within the soup apart from ham?
Deborah, one in all my wonderful readers, jogged my memory about including floor beef as an alternative of ham. Nice tip! In the event you’re excited by making an attempt one other meat, I extremely advocate cooked Italian sausage or pork; both would style scrumptious!
Can I make this sixteen-bean soup meatless?
You can also make this soup vegetarian by skipping the ham or some other meat. It nonetheless tastes scrumptious!
Is that this sixteen-bean soup thought-about gluten-free?
As with all meals allergy, I’d extremely advocate reviewing the components of any product you utilize on this recipe, or on some other packaging, for those who determine so as to add further components. With the recipe made as is, the commonest ingredient which will include gluten is the seasoning packet included within the sixteen-bean bag. Please evaluate all packaging if it is a dietary concern.
What can I serve with this sixteen-bean soup?
On the lookout for different scrumptious bean recipes? These are a few of my favorites!
Do you know? Some attention-grabbing info about beans:
Ultimate Phrase
Let me know for those who attempt making my sixteen-bean soup recipe. You recognize I really like to listen to from you. It’s an awesome recipe to show our youngsters and grandkids how one can make soup with only some components. Soups of all types are a welcome meal this time of yr because the climate turns somewhat colder. Nothing like a sizzling soup to heat up our our bodies and spirits!
Plus, we will train them how one can stretch a meal with extra beans! Could God bless this world, Linda

